beestings
/ˈbiː.stɪŋz/
beestings noun: the first milk drawn from an animal (especially a cow) after it has given birth. Also the plural of beesting.
Noun
beestings pl (plural only)
- The first milk drawn from an animal (especially a cow) after it has given birth.
- [W]ith thy Sickle reap the rankeſt land: / And miniſter the Blade, vvith bounteous hand. / Nor be vvith harmful parſimony vvon / To follovv vvhat our homely Sires have done; / VVho fill'd the Pail vvith Beeſtings of the Covv: / But all her Udder to the Calf allovv.1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 104, lines...
- He took a jug of ‘beestings’ milk from the press, the milk of a cow that has recently calved, and drank it down in six big gulps.2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 54
Also used as
beestings is also the plural of beesting.
Synonyms of beestings
Forms of beestings
| alternative form | beastings |
|---|---|
| alternative form | beistings |
| alternative form | beistyn |
| alternative form | biestings |
| alternative form | bislings |
| alternative form | bisnings |
Origin of beestings
From Old English bȳsting, derived from bēost, from Proto-West Germanic *beust.
Questions about beestings
- What does beestings mean?
- Beestings means the first milk drawn from an animal (especially a cow) after it has given birth.
- What part of speech is beestings?
- Beestings is a noun.
- How do you pronounce beestings?
- Beestings is pronounced /ˈbiː.stɪŋz/.
Words near beestings in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: beestings (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-beestings.wav.
Cite this entry: “beestings.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beestings. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.